By 2028, today's digital curriculum could already be out of date, says digital skills expert

Graduate job vacancies have fallen sharply, with Adzuna recording 8,383 vacancies in July, down 45.6% from 15,397 a year earlier, according to figures reported by the BBC. The number of jobseekers per vacancy has also risen, from 1.93 to 2.14.

Crispin Read (pictured above), CEO of The Coders Guild, leaders of the Level 4 AI and Automation apprenticeship, says the figures point to a wider problem with how we design education and skills pathways.

He said: “If we were to design a set of pathways now, start delivering them in September 2028, and they're out of date on the first morning. That's not pessimism, it's arithmetic. In digital and AI the tooling turns over every few weeks. 

“So the valuable thing to build now is the updating mechanism and ensuring a way for content to change every term, in response to what's actually happening in workplaces, without a two-year approval cycle attached to it.”

“That's the part we've solved, and it isn't theoretical. If something needs to change, it changes, and it's in the material the next time it's taught. We run that loop in days rather than years.”

Read also says the debate around funding training for existing workers needs to recognise what the Growth and Skills Levy is designed to do.

“It stopped being the apprenticeship levy in April. It's the Growth and Skills Levy now, and funding skills for people already in work is part of the design, not a loophole.”

The government has expanded the use of levy funding so employers can support training beyond full apprenticeships. Read says that is the right response to a digital skills shortage that has lasted throughout his career.

“Everybody's new job, whatever their title, is applying what they know about their organisation to creating, running and keeping control of automations and agents.”

The comments follow unique forecasting released in August 2026 by The Coders Guild predicting that the UK's NEET rate could return to post-financial crisis levels without urgent action. Britain could be on course for more than 1.25 million young people being outside education, employment or training (NEET) by 2030, according to new prediction-based data. 

The research projects the UK's NEET rate could rise from 13.5 per cent in early 2026 to around 16 per cent by 2030, leaving between 1.2 million and 1.3 million young people aged 16 to 24 outside education, employment or training if current trends continue.

The forecasts were developed using a bespoke forecasting model that combines the latest Office for National Statistics NEET data, regional labour market trends, House of Commons Library analysis, dem

The model assesses where current trajectories are likely to lead in the absence of significant labour market or policy change, producing both national and regional forecasts to 2030.

The analysis identifies a clear and consistent direction of travel. The UK's NEET rate has risen steadily since 2021 and is now at its highest level for more than a decade. At the same time, the Government's independent Young People and Work review has warned the national rate could exceed 16 per cent within five years if existing trends persist. The Coders Guild's modelling independently reaches a similar conclusion, strengthening the evidence that Britain is heading towards a significant youth employment challenge unless action is taken.

While the Government has announced measures including the Youth Guarantee and wider skills reforms, there is currently insufficient evidence to suggest those policies alone will reverse the underlying trends before 2030. Entry-level recruitment has weakened across many sectors, employers increasingly expect digital and technical skills from new recruits, apprenticeship participation remains below previous levels in key industries, and economic inactivity linked to poor health continues to rise among young people. 

Read says the answer to youth unemployment should not be to remove training from people already in work.

The Government has announced that eligible under-25s will have their apprenticeship training fully funded from August 2026, alongside measures intended to create 50,000 new youth apprenticeships.

“The same levy funds an upskiller safeguarding their career and a school leaver getting their first chance. That's the system working.”

He says young people still face serious barriers to entering work, including transport, confidence and difficulty navigating the skills system.

“The answer to youth unemployment isn't stripping training away from everyone else. It's making the pathways easier to find and easier to use.”

Read also argues that access to technical careers is often decided long before a young person reaches an apprenticeship.

“Children get sorted out of technical careers absurdly early, often around the age of seven or eight, and the sorting is done on indicators that have very little to do with the actual work.”

He points to maths as one example.

“Programming maths is logic, pattern, breaking a problem into parts, and being comfortable not knowing the answer yet.”

He says schools and employers need to put greater weight on problem solving, communication, research, reflection and learning from failure.

Read also supports greater regional control over skills provision. He took part in the Leeds consultation for the UN Global Compact Network UK's 2026 report on regional barriers to social mobility.

He says West Yorkshire needs pathways designed around its own communities and labour market, rather than simply extending a Leeds model across the region.

“Any pathway designed for 14 year olds in West Yorkshire has to start there, or it'll be a Leeds programme with a regional name on it.”

“The most important thing to design isn't the curriculum. It's the mechanism that keeps the curriculum current.”